Apples, Apples, Everywhere

So, last month, when we went to the farm to go pumpkin picking, we also picked apples. We picked a little over one hundred pounds of apples to be exact. I know. What does one family do with so many apples you might be thinking? I'll tell you. We made apple sauce! 

We made gallons and gallons of apple sauce over the course of a couple of weeks, to be exact.

It was a fun "project" and one I'm sure we'll be doing for the rest of our lives now. And while we're talking about apples, I made my first ever apple pie for Thanksgiving this year!

Isn't it lovely? It tasted pretty darn good too!

And while we're talking about Thanksgiving, we spent the holiday with my dad and his family at my cousin Ann's house. It's always a really nice time there and I'm really glad we went. Thanks for having us Ann!

Let's Talk About It Being the Last Day of November

Wow guys.  Where did this month go? I seriously have NO idea. We started decorating the house for Christmas today and I'm like, where did this year go? HOW are we almost back to Christmas again? I don't know, it's just crazy.

Anyhoo, we had a really nice Thanksgiving down at Josh's parent's house. Josh's sister Linda, and her son, Sam, were there, as well as Josh's Uncle Ray and Aunt Lorrie, and his cousin, Holly, and her husband, Jordan.  It was really good to see them all again, even if once we were finished eating my kids spent the rest of the evening on iPads.

I must say, though, I was rather impressed with Zeke's ability to carry on a conversation with Holly while playing on the iPad. Only a few times he got too wrapped up to answer her immediately. It was also very sweet watching Deacon and Aunt Lorrie play music together on her iPad.

We all had a great time and oh, my, goodness was there ever SO much food! And of course, all of it was delicious.  I think I gained 11 pounds, but I did so happily. 

I'm so thankful for so much.  For my Savior and His love, grace, and mercy. For my husband who loves me and provides so much for me. For 3 beautiful and wonderful boys who make me laugh (and stress me out - let's be honest) every day. I'm thankful for my family, and my friends; for a home, food, and clothes. God is so good and I'm so thankful.

I guess I'm also thankful for Legos (when they aren't causing fights). And on that note, I'm linking here to Josh's Lego page where he wrote a little Thanksgiving post with the Thanksgiving things he built.  Check it out, it's pretty sweet.  JOSH'S PAGE.

Enjoy the rest of your long weekend (assuming you have one)! I'll see y'all in December (but not tomorrow, I don't like to blog on Sundays)!

Dingle Dangle!

We've been having a really nice two days after Thanksgiving, hanging out around the house playing LEGOs and watching football and just relaxing.  So, as I'm in total relax mode, I've decided that in lieu of blogging about anything I'm just going to post this video I saw today because it tickles me.  Enjoy!

 

Gobble Gobble To Ya!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!  We had a lovely day with my father, stepmom and extended family. The picture I'm using is probably my favorite moment of the day (not really, but it was a good laugh).  Shortly after dinner was finished my dad's dog laid down in front of the door and was all, "I'm ready to go whenever you guys are."  It was pretty funny.

 

Anyhoo, we had a good time seeing aunts and uncles and cousins.  We ate a bunch of good food, and the boys had a blast playing and coloring and wrestling with Grandpa Bob.  By the time we got home, we had 3 tuckered out little boys (and 1 tuckered out momma).  So, it was a great day all around. I hope you all enjoyed your holiday as well.

'Twas the Morning Before Thanksgiving

Just like last year, the kindergarteners put on a Thanksgiving "show" for their families.  It was 2 songs, but it was cute.  Following the show was a Thanksgiving "dinner" for the kids and then for their families (the kindergarteners were fed first, then their guests were allowed to go through the buffet line if there were leftovers).  Also like last year, the kids dressed up - half as pilgrims (which is what Zeke was), half as Native Americans:

 

Isn't he the cutest "Native American" ever?!  He is actually a teensy bit Native American, so I guess the costume choice was appropriate.  Maybe?  Either way, it was a fun morning and the kids did a great job singing.  Here's the shorter of the 2 songs for your listening and viewing pleasure:

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

So, November Kind of Got Away From Me

Hey there! Long time no hear from, huh? Sorry about that. November sort of got away from me this year. I had thought about doing NaBloPoMo again, but totally bailed on that idea after the first day when I realized I'd be gone a few days this month and didn't really want to blog while I was gone. So I took the entire month off. I'm toying with the idea of "making it up to you" by blogging all of December. We'll see.

As for November though, the "few" pictures I took this month are up on flickr, and looking through them, we really didn't do too much that was exciting this month. Which is probably why I didn't blog too much this month. Thanksgiving was this month, so I'll blog about that (minus pictures because I apparently didn't take any that day).

The day before Thanksgiving Zeke's kindergarten class and the other kindergarten classes put on a little show/dinner for their families. It was super cute. He'd been singing the songs for us a good week or so before the show, but it was fun seeing him up there, singing and dancing with all the other kids. When they lined up on the stands, he look at us and almost started crying from excitement when he saw that ALL of us were there, since Daddy was able to leave work for an hour to be there as well.

Here's a video of one of the 2 songs they sang. Zeke is in the center on the back row. And if you look closely at the bottom left of the screen when I zoom out at one point you'll see a cute blonde woman - that's Zeke's teacher. I like her. Anyway, the video:

Aren't they all so cute?

Thanksgiving day we watched the parade in the morning. Well, I watched the parade while the boys ran around and played. Although, the Sesame Street float was a HUGE hit with Finn. He climbed into my lap and bopped around and pointed at all his friends. It was very sweet.

We had Thanksgiving dinner down at Josh's parents' house. We had a nice time. The bigger boys had a ton of fun playing with their cousin Sam, as well as Josh's cousin Holly and her husband, Jordan. Finn impressed everyone with his mad iPad/iPhone skills. It was really nice seeing everyone who was there, and enjoying a good meal with them.

The rest of the long weekened was spent playing LEGOs. Josh's parents gave us BOXES of LEGOs and LEGO sets and all that kind of stuff, which we spent almost the entire weekend sorting, and putting specific sets together, and organizing and all sorts of stuff.

We're not even close to being finished either. You see the big brown box there? That's FULL to the TOP with just pieces. Yes, I would say thousands of LEGO pieces. We aren't keeping them all. We're going through and trying to put together all the sets so we can send of them on to Linda for Sam to play with (you're welcome Lin!). Hopefully we'll have it done by Christmas.

And that, in a nutshell, was our holiday weekend. Nice. Quiet. LEGO-filled. Just how we like it. I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a day!

Once again, Josh let me sleep in a little in the morning. I overheard him and Zeke getting some things for dinner together, and I really wanted to get up and take some pictures, but I didn't want to interrupt their bonding time, so I stayed in bed. But once I got up, we hung out for a bit then flicked back and forth between the parade and the Lions/Patriots football game. They both ended just in time for lunch and naps.

After naps it was go, go, go while we got dinner ready and on the table. We really made way too much food for just the 4 (5 if you count Finn) of us, but it was all so good. There was stuffing and green bean casserole. There was mashed potatoes that Deacon helped peel:

There was cranberry sauce (two different varieties) and gravy. There were biscuits (we tried to make bread in our bread machine but something went terribly awry and the bread didn't really turn out...sad) and pickles and squash. And, of course, there was the turkey, which Josh cooked in the turkey fryer this year, and man was it delicious!

As I said, way too much food, but it was all so good. We have truly been blessed this past year, and we are so thankful for so much. Before we started eating, we all took turns saying some of the things we are thankful for. After we finished, Zeke decided to recap, and here's what he got from it: Daddy is thankful for Zeke. Mommy is thankful for Jesus. Zeke is thankful for family. Deacon is thankful for milk. And Finn isn't thankful because he's too little. Heh heh. Finn wasn't too little, however, to taste a few of the goodies we made:

After dinner there was chocolate cake, baths, and the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving special on TV. All in all it was a very low key day, which really was very nice. Oh! It also been snowing all. day. long, and has dropped about 4-6 inches so far. And since I posted a picture of everyone else, here's one of me to close the post:

I hope everyone else had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.